Russia's ECHR Complaint Against Ukraine Cannot Be Ignored - Zakharova

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd July, 2021) The Russian complaint with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against Ukraine cannot be ignored, and Western countries should stand by their words on priority of rights issues, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.

Earlier in the day Russia filed its first inter-state complaint with the ECHR in Strasbourg against Ukraine. In the document focusing on events that followed the 2014 change of power in Ukraine, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office accuses Kiev of violating the European Convention on Human Rights.

"It is human rights that has been number one concern for them [in the West]," Zakharova told the Rossiya 1 broadcaster.

The West claims prioritizing human rights and democracy over finances, business, economy and security, and now it should "stand by its words" in practice, according to the diplomat.

"One can ensure so that information coming from Russia or its representatives does not reach western audiences, but materials submitted to the ECHR cannot be ignored," Zakharova added.

Russia's ECHR complaint accuses Kiev of civilian deaths, arbitrary imprisonment and ill treatment of people during the events on the Independence Square in Kiev, the 2014 massacre at the Trade Unions House in Odessa, as well as during the ongoing hostilities in the Donbas region. It also raises issues of discrimination against ethnic and linguistic minorities in Ukraine, including the bans on or restricted access to Russian-language broadcasters and media.

Since April 2014, Kiev has been conducting a military operation against the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk after they refused to recognize the new central authorities, which came to power after what Donbas deems a coup.